BLU-RAY REVIEW: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2
08/17/2014

OVERVIEW: The world’s most popular web-slinger returns when THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2™ arrives on 3-disc Blu-ray™ 3D Combo Pack, 2-disc Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD Aug. 19 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone reprise their iconic roles as Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, who face their most dangerous adversaries yet. In THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2™, Peter Parker finds there’s no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing his role as New York City’s hero and spending time with Gwen. But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Academy Award® winner Jamie Foxx, Best Actor, Ray, 2004), Spider-Man faces his greatest battle yet. 

Fans will be excited to explore the Blu-ray exclusive bonus features, which include the six-part, behind-the-scenes documentary, “The Wages of Heroism: Making The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” which includes more than 100 minutes of immersive featurettes detailing the heroic efforts needed to bring the film to life. Exclusively available on Blu-ray are nine all-new deleted scenes with commentary by Marc Webb, including the scene “Peter Meets His Father.” Both the Blu-ray and DVD versions of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2™ include a Filmmaker Commentary, four deleted scenes and Alicia Keys’ “It’s On Again” music video.

SYNOPSIS: It’s great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there’s no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price:only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: Oscorp.

FILM REVIEW: Firstly, consider that Marc Webb‘s 2012 film, The Amazing Spider-Man (an origins story) focused on the relationship between Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) and his high school sweetheart, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Now consider that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 seems to set out to change the dynamics this time around, where they expand the “Spider-Man” universe. This is a Spidey-world-building-sequel that will potentially create multiple spin-offs in the pipeline of Marvel’s The Avengers. This time around, we begin with Pete’s further exploration of the disappearance of his parents, Richard and Mary Parker (Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz). In Raimi’s trilogy, Pete isn’t really affected by the loss of his parents, but here, he is absolutely defined by it. Consequently, when he isn’t saving the citizens of Manhattan, he is consumed with discovering the truth behind why his parents abandoned him. 

With an excellent cast and dazzling special effects, Webb’s iteration is quite impressive, despite revisiting many of the same plot points from Raimi’s trilogy. There are a number of villains in this latest Webb effort that lead to many impressive action sequences that truly capture the agility, movement, speed, and kinetic energy of the web-slinging wall-crawler.. The camera swoops along with our hero as he swings through the skyscraper maze that is New York City, creating a vertiginous effect that is exhilarating in IMAX 3D. Though part one had similar scenes and sequences, I wasn’t impressed then; However, I am very much impressed this time around because they got it right!

I particularly like the way Webb has brought the superhero back to his comic book roots with the wit and comic-relief that is pure and fun… where Spiderman is jokingly dealing with crime in a cute and lighthearted manner rather than muscle-bound dramatics. His exclamations and remarks are much like what one would read in the comic book series. This, along with other nice elements, allows for this latest release to be the closest that any one has gotten to the original essence of the comic book hero.

If I must speak negatively of this latest effort, I would have to say that the revisiting of Raimi’s plot points takes away from greatness of this flick for me. Webb could have been a little more creative in the area of designating one of the villains as just another spoiled rich kid that turns to the dark-side. 

Despite its few little issues though, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 soars high on the performances of both Garfield and Stone, with plenty of spectacle, humor, and heartfelt moments to make Webb’s “second-timer” effort resonate well with fans of Marvel’s Spider-Man character. It deserves four and a half out of five stars and is very much worth the theater visit.

Review By Movi-Man Stan

BLU-RAY: The film is presented in widescreen in a 1.85:1 aspect ration preserving its theatrical format. The picture is just flawless. Not only the picture looks great in this release, also the sound it is good, a 5.1 Dolby Digital in English that provides a good complement to the picture. It also includes  English, French  and Spanish subtitles.

VIDEO:
Widescreen (2.40:1) 16x9

AUDIO:
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1/DVS English, Dolby Digital 5.1 Latin Spanish, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese

Subtitles - English SDH, Latin Spanish, Parisian French, Brazilian Portuguese

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Blu-ray™ disc unleashes the power of your HDTV and is the best way to watch movies at home, featuring perfect hi-def picture and hi-def sound. 

DVD offers the flexibility and convenience of playing movies in more places, both at home and away. 

Digital Copy provides consumers with a choice of formats from a variety of partners, including options to watch on iPhone®,
iPad®, Android, computers and more.

UltraViolet™ is the revolutionary way for consumers to collect their movies and TV shows in the cloud. UltraViolet™ lets
consumers instantly stream and download to tablets, smartphones, computers and TVs. Now available in both the United States
and Canada.

4 All-New Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Marc Webb

Filmmaker Commentary

Alicia Keys “It’s On Again” music video

9 Additional Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Marc Webb, including “Peter Meets His Father”

“The Wages of Heroism: Making The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” featuring revealing, in-depth segments including: 

“Lessons Learned: Development and Direction” – Filmmakers and cast discuss their approach to the sequel and their efforts to make it the best Spider-Man yet.

“Heart of the City: Shooting in New York” – A behind-the-scenes look at the film’s unprecedented access to New York City during production.

“Triple Threat: Attack of the Villains” – An inside look at the development of Spider-Man’s fearsome foes, Electro, the Green Goblin and Rhino.

“A More Dangerous World: Transforming Electro and the Green Goblin” – From make-up to costuming, see what it took to transform Jamie Foxx and Dane DeHaan into their fearsome alter-egos.

“A Bolt From the Blue: Visual Effects” – Sony Pictures Imageworks artists and animators show how they created the gravity defying, web-slinging and pumped-up action in the new film.

“Spidey Gets His Groove Back: Music and Editing” – Learn how the film’s soundtrack and score came together in this behind-the-scenes look at jam sessions with Composer Hans Zimmer and the team of master musicians he assembled, including Pharrell Williams, Johnny Marr, Michael Einziger and more. 

New Public Service Announcement for the Worldwide Orphans Foundation (WWO), featuring Andrew Garfield & WWO CEO Dr. Jane Aronson